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Topic: Millar Stainless Steel Pizza Oven (Read 31260 times)

I've experienced with various methods of cooking my pizzas over the years. Regular indoor oven works fine, but gets the house too hot during the summer and it doesn't produce a rustic flavor. My pellet grill seemed like a good idea, but it just doesn't get hot enough. Lately, I've been using my Quattro gas grill using the pizza stone insert. While the Quattro produces the best results I've had so far, I am still in search of an affordable, true wood fired pizza oven for my home. The problem is most solutions are very expensive, the majority I've found start at three grand and go up. Just on a whim, I decided to check eBay and found an auction for a Millar's Stainless Steel wood fired pizza oven. 1795 + 250 shipping buys the complete unit and that includes their accessory pack and a bundle of hardwood.

I was wondering if anyone has heard of these ovens or have any comments on them? It seems like a too good to be true deal considering the competition, so I have to think there's a "gotcha" that I'm not seeing.

Thanks for posting the link. If you watch the video I appears to be a quality oven. It's interesting how they claim it heats up much faster than a masonry oven since the inside is stainless, which makes sense because the stainless would reflect the heat instead of absorbing it. I'm still trying to figure out why the price is so low and what the drawbacks are.

First thing I do whenever somebody asks about an oven is look at the pizzas on their website. I would like to think anybody trying to sell me a pizza oven would know enough about pizza to only advertise with the best possible pizzas their oven can produce. More times then not this doesn't seem to be the case.

That hint aside it really depends on how picky you are. That oven has many flaws, but it is far better then a grill. It lacks thermal mass in the dome, which means it will probably struggle to maintain temperatures for lots of pizza, and will not do retained heat cooking like a brick oven does. I'm also not so sure it has insulation under the hearth. The ash pan makes me think it doesn't. It is also very narrow and deep, which will force you to cook with the fire at the back which is not ideal because you will not be able to see the side of the pie nearest the fire and how it is cooking.

If you look around I think you could find a small cast oven kit in that price range, and you could certainly build an oven for less if you keep the enclosure simple.

That gets you a 32" oven which will have more usable space then that narrow rectangle for $1850. If you built a basic cinderblock stand for it and gave it a basic stucco igloo finish you could probably come in close what the other one is gonna cost so you're only real extra expense would be the cost of shipping.

First thing I do whenever somebody asks about an oven is look at the pizzas on their website. I would like to think anybody trying to sell me a pizza oven would know enough about pizza to only advertise with the best possible pizzas their oven can produce. More times then not this doesn't seem to be the case.

Frankly, the pizza cooked in the demo video was not up to my standards by any means. Point taken.

A lower ceiling will allow you to cook pizzas at higher temperatures easier by allowing the oven to evenly cook the top and bottom in short bake times. I already touched on the width. The fire will have to be at the back. That can make it tough to turn the pie at the right time leading to an uneven bake.

A lower ceiling will allow you to cook pizzas at higher temperatures easier by allowing the oven to evenly cook the top and bottom in short bake times. I already touched on the width. The fire will have to be at the back. That can make it tough to turn the pie at the right time leading to an uneven bake.

I appreciate the example you provided, but I want a turnkey solution. The other important factor is that it be on wheels. My garage is dedicated to cookers instead of cars and I plan on keeping it in the garage and rolling it to the back patio for parties. Other times I might just roll it out to the driveway so casters are a must.

If you know of any other examples in the two grand to twenty five hundred price range that are turnkey with casters I'd love to check them out.

I think I've decided to go with a RoundBoy with the basic stand. I contacted Karl via email and he'll add casters to the stand for a small nominal fee and it will only delay shipping a couple days. I contacted FornoBravo sales via email and am unable to get a simple answer to the total height from ground to top of chimney for the Andiamo. I told them in my email the spec sheet on the website doesn't have all the dimensions included to calculate the total height. They replied by sending me the very spec sheet I was referring to, obviously they didn't take the time to read my question. When I asked again, they gave me an "about" answer instead of a specific answer. If I were selling a three thousand dollar oven I would make darn sure I could provide dimensions.

I talked to Karl and Lisa (his wife and Pizza oven chef). They invited me over to see how the Roundboy cooks first hand. I am buying a Roundboy in Grey with the basic stand (I may "build it in" later) with adjustable feet added. No I can't cook more than one pizza at a time easily, no it is not a 44" oven, no I can't sleep in the enclosure at night. I can good great pizza after great pizza at 850 + degrees, I can bake a few loaves of bread (I am not a bakery and would not need to more than one batch of bread at a time).

The Roundboy oven really does exactly what I want it to do for less than 2 grand and an afternoon of assembly time that I can do by myself.

Bigfoot, I couldn't agree more. I called Karl and ordered my RoundBoy today! He ordered the casters so it probably won't ship for a week and a half or so. At first I was concerned it wasn't "round" because I've read some threads on here that claim a round chamber is the only way to go vs. barrel shape. Then I found this article and decided for what I want to do, cook a few pizzas with friends, the RoundBoy is the perfect tool. And, it's affordable with the shipping being free. Karl is a super nice man and a pleasure to deal with.

No I can't cook more than one pizza at a time easily, no it is not a 44" oven, no I can't sleep in the enclosure at night. I can good great pizza after great pizza at 850 + degrees, I can bake a few loaves of bread (I am not a bakery and would not need to more than one batch of bread at a time).

... At first I was concerned it wasn't "round" because I've read some threads on here that claim a round chamber is the only way to go vs. barrel shape.

What everyone needs to remember is that this forum is the upper 1% of the upper 1%, as far as critique goes. Ovens, flour, salt, water, yeast, cultures and what not.... Everything pizza is subject to review, with personal opinions expressed.

I have been using a Millars oven for about 4 months now. It's really a great oven. I don't think you can beat the price on this big oven. There are some knock offs out there which are not insulated or of good quality stainless so be sure to get one from an actual millars site.

The pizzas and bread coming out have been great. In fact I am always amazed at the way it retains heat. The top of the oven roof can be 900 degrees and the outside 100 or less.

I disagree with the harsh assessment of the F3. I own one, use it all the time and am delighted with it. I seriously researched at least 20 different non-masonry, portable wood fired ovens and after a lot of conversations with a couple of company representatives and considerable thought, decided to purchase the Millars F3. It performs extremely well. It's quick to fire up to proper temperature and coal characteristics and holds its heat well ... even in the dead of the (Western Pennsylvania) winter. I'm sure there are lots of good ovens out there. But this is one of them, I can personally attest to that.

One more thing ... the Millars F3 has something that I haven't seen in any other portable wood fired ovens and that is extremely convenient to have ... a grate at the back of the oven and an ash drawer underneath it. Unless you are going to remove the coals and wash the floor to make bread, you never have to pull the coals out of the front of the oven. You just brush them into the grate, pull out the drawer and your coals are gone!!! It's very convenient ... especially if you're using good, dry wood (no more than 18% moisture) which burns down to almost nothing eventually.

I disagree with the harsh assessment of the F3. I own one, use it all the time and am delighted with it. I seriously researched at least 20 different non-masonry, portable wood fired ovens and after a lot of conversations with a couple of company representatives and considerable thought, decided to purchase the Millars F3. It performs extremely well. It's quick to fire up to proper temperature and coal characteristics and holds its heat well ... even in the dead of the (Western Pennsylvania) winter. I'm sure there are lots of good ovens out there. But this is one of them, I can personally attest to that.

Glad this oven is working out for you. I feel the Millars are doing themselves a great disservice with the pizzas they show on their site. BoTrojan , do you have some of your own pizza pics you've made in you oven?

Happy to hear you are happy with your oven Bo, that is always the most important things.

Sometimes our critique's can seem a bit harsh, but that is simply the product of this great community. There are very elite pizza makers here with some very elite setups(Craig...cough cough). What may be a crowning achievement for even a well seasoned home pizza maker often does not meet the minimum requirements for members here(Omid's Da Michele clones of for example) .

That brings us back to the Millars oven. Generally when wood fired ovens are critiqued here a major factor is their ability to properly and evenly cook a 60 second Neapolitan pizza because that style is the most demaning on the oven. Once you lower your expectations away from that, the door opens for LOTS of ovens to fit the bill, and although those ovens may meet the needs of some, you will not hear most members here singing their praises. Right now there is simply nothing to show the Millars oven can produce that elusive 60 second pizza. If you get into Neapolitan pizza in the future and find it can indeed produce a balanced 60 second bake I am sure the community would love to have you share that information, but until then I don't think many opinions are going to change.

Very interesting feedback. I have to tell you, I've had pizza in at least 50 pizzerias in and around Naples, though mostly outside of Naples in the province of Caserta, which borders the Naples province to the north/east. I also happen to have relatives who have a pizzeria/ristorante (it's called Due Monti) in Baia e Latina, a village about an hour from Naples where my father's parents came from. I've spent hours eating and making pizza with them in their amazing brick oven. Some of the Pizza Margherita you get in the pizzerias in Caserta certainly looks like the Da Michele pizzas, but a lot of it does not at all. Frankly, very few of the pizzerias I've been to in that area make their pizzas in 60 seconds, as far as I can recall. My cousins, the Perrottas at Due Monti, certainly do not. It's typically more like 2 to 2 and a half minutes, actually, depending on the pizza. Regardless, to cook a pizza in 60 seconds, you would certainly need an oven to be hotter than the Millars oven can do. So I can answer your exit question straight up and without hesitation: if that level of heat and that short of a cook time constitute the immutable standards for you, then forget about the Millars oven. You can, however, easily maintain 750 to 800 degree floor temperatures, which is fine for a 2 to 2 1/2 minute pizza that is also perfectly authentic by my apparently pedestrian standards.

On the topic of whether a pizza has to look exactly like the ones that come from Da Michele (it's famous, I know, and I admit I've never been there) in order to qualify as authentic "pizza napoletana" ... well ... that one's just a head-scratcher for someone that has been to the area as many times as I have and eaten at as many pizzerias as I have.